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Eurocars Crete: Rent a Car for Elounda

You can pick up and return your Eurocars rental car for your holidays in Elounda in Crete at the airport of Heraklion or the airport of Chania, or at the ports of Heraklion, Rethymnon and Chania/Souda.

Elounda is a former fishing village by the south-west edge of the bay of the same name. The name probably comes from the Greek word "elos" which means "swampland". So Elounda might have been a swampy place in earlier times.

The bay is being separated from the Mediterranean Sea by the offshore peninsula of Spinalonga which is connected to the main island of Crete just by a narrow dam at its southernmost tip. The area is thus of particular scenic beauty.

Due to the sheltered location which the peninsula provides, the old fishing port could go without a complex harbour wall. The harbour basin is made up just by a spit of land and a single pier with some buildings on it.

There are wharves for fishing boats and for private yachts both inside and outside of the port. Compared to the size of the village, the number of private yachts is impressive. In line with this, Elounda does not at all belong to the budget places in Crete. Even the rental cars that can be found in this area belong to the more expensive types.

A sandy beach attaches northwards to the port, and then comes another pier where the cruise boats moor which sail for day trips to the lepers' island of Kalydon. More cruises to Kalydon which is most often called Spinalonga start from the northern port of Agios Nicolaos, the capital of the governmental district of Lassithi, some 11 kms south of Elounda.

But actually Spinalonga is only the large peninsula, and Kalydon is the small island in front of its northern tip where the bay exits to the Mediterranean Sea. And it is only this small island where in the old times the fortress watched over the entrance of the bay, which then has been used as the place of exile for Crete's lepers later on until the year of 1957.

Some new hotel resorts spread from the village center southwards until short before the southern tip of the bay, and there is another sandy beach by the dam that connects the main island to the peninsula of Spinalonga. The airport of Heraklion is about a one hour's drive away from Elounda.